When open-top containers are used to transport bulk material along highways and railroad tracks, the material can be blown out of the car. Rain and contaminants can enter the car directly spoiling the contents if they are not waste products or, if they are waste products, adding to the liquid contained in the car which may present a leaking or odor problem. Sabotage, theft and spontaneous combustion (a special concern when transporting bulk combustibles such as coal which produces coal dust) are other problems that appear depending on the nature of the material transported. One common solution is simply to cover the open car with a tarpaulin, but tarpaulins are frequently lost or break free in transit. These conditions allow loss of the material being carried and, moreover, tarpaulins require personnel time to install and remove them. U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,956 shows an improved hydraulically actuated tarp extension and retraction system for a truck.
Many types of known top-loading containers having cover members hinged to the upwardly facing top peripheral edge section of an open-top and are actuated by extendable mechanisms such as hydraulically driven piston means as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,913,969; 4,200,330; 4,767,152; 5,498,066; and 6,227,608. Most involve the use of relatively complex linkage and/or hinge arrangements to effect the desired opening and closing of the open-top cover member. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,734 discloses a top cover assembly for coal carrying vehicles wherein a cover member is removably, pivotally connected to the upper peripheral edge sections of opposed planar sidewalls, and includes hydraulic piston cylinders that enable the top cover member to be pivotally opened from either of two opposed upper edge sections. U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,223 discloses a gear, chain, and drive shaft assembly for opening and closing a pair of roof doors over an open-top container, which may be placed on a special vehicle or a train for transporting bulk materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,560 discloses a railway car transportation system in which top-loading containers having removably mounted top covers that are moved independently of the container that is removably mounted on a mobile flatbed railway car. Unlike the cover assembly of this invention, a forklift is used to individually remove each of the top cover members from each container, and each container from the flatbed car.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,561 discloses a top cover that is hinged to a vertical support rack, operates independently from a roll-off container, and pivotally moves between open and closed top positions when a pair of telescoping support struts respectively move between extended and retracted positions. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,378,188 and 5,362,198 each discloses a top cover that is removed from a container by support arms pivotally mounted to a vertical support rack, and pivotally moves between open and closed top positions when a hydraulically driven piston respectively moves between extended and retracted positions.
In contrast, the top cover of the invention pivotally moves between open and closed top positions with respect to a container, but the invented cover actuating means respectively moves oppositely between retracted and extended positions to open and close the top cover oppositely from the '561, '188, and '198 structures. In addition, unlike the top cover assembly of the invention, the '188 and '198 cover actuating mechanisms are part of a dumping assembly that empties the container while the top cover is held in an open position.
Blowing harvested crops into the front of a forage wagon is known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,563 discloses a forage handling vehicle having a top plate inclined rearwardly that prevents forage delivered by a harvester to the trailer through a front top opening from being blown over the top, back edge section of the trailer. U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,811 discloses a forage wagon having a hinged roof that serves to limit loss of forage from the top of the wagon during travel and when the roof is in its elevated position, serves to enlarge the open portion to facilitate loading.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,886,719 and 4,015,520 exemplify a particular type of stack-forming machine featuring a front end loading forage wagon having a bulk material pressing top cover mechanism that periodically presses down on accumulated crop to increase the load density to form a self-sustaining stack that is discharged from the rear of the wagon.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,425, crop handling equipment used in harvesting grain and agricultural forage are well known and in widespread use. The harvesting operation from which the invention has been developed is shown in FIG. 1 and specifically relates to the control of overloading (i.e., transferring) the harvested crop from the harvesting machine to the transporting vehicle while harvesting. Combine harvester 2 has a cutting mechanism 4 for mowing a field area 6 to be harvested, and then separates and cleans grain from the mowed harvested product. After intermediate storage in a grain tank of combine 2, discharge tube 8 discharges the grain to a transporting vehicle, which includes a field tractor 10 and a trailer 12. Care must be taken in this type of operation so as to avoid undesired loss of the harvested crop during the overloading process. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,907,402 and 5,953,892 show typical machines for loading harvested crops into an agricultural wagon or trailer.
All silage systems center around the forage harvester that either picks up the swathed crop or direct cuts the crop for themselves. The most common type of forage harvester uses a cylinder cutter-head that chops the forage into short uniform lengths, which are then blown through a spout to the box or receptacle of a truck, wagon, or trailer that is being used to transport the forage to a discharge or unloading location. Known wagons are front end and side loading with the harvester traveling in the front or along the side of the wagon to direct a continuous flow of forage into the open-top receptacle.
In the prior art operation of FIG. 1, combine 2 includes a device for electro-mechanically monitoring existing harvest conditions to effect overloading of the product into trailer 12. For the efficiency of the use and the impact force of combine 2, it is important that combine 2 not be maintained stationary during the time period of overloading of the threshed and cleaned grain to the transporting vehicle 10, 12, but to perform the overloading process during the parallel travel of the harvesting machine and transporting vehicle. Unlike the grain harvesting combine 2, a forage harvester must necessarily be overloaded during travel of the units because there is so much product to be overloaded that an intermediate storage is no longer possible.
For avoiding a loss of the products to be overloaded from combine 2, or because of an unfavorable loading of the transporting vehicle, the drivers of combine 2 and transporting vehicle 10, 12 must control the overloading process, which is a difficult task. For the drivers must drive forward and at the same time control overloading rearwardly or laterally while coordinating opposite sides of their respective machinery to guarantee optimal loading as well as to prevent collisions of the vehicles with one another. The drivers' respective cabins include control instruments having various switches and keys, and image screens 14 on which several graphic indicators are represented. Each driver is thus informed about the speed, number of revolutions of the motor and working organs, adjustments of the machine, service intervals, control tips, working parameters and others in graphic and/or alpha numerical indicators. A monitoring camera 16 arranged on discharge tube 8 and connected with combine 2 monitors the overloading process. Monitoring camera 16a is electrically connected to control combine 2 so that it travels along the edge of the crop stand in an optimal manner.
The output end of discharge tube 8 is directly over or located a very short distance from a traditional, open-top trailer 12 as shown. The harvested crop load is piled up to about 18 or 24 inches above the sides of trailer 12 before it starts roll off onto the ground. Once the trailer is thus full, both the harvester and transport vehicle stop while the harvesting machine blows all of the harvested material out of the harvester to clear crop from its inlet to its discharge end. So while the harvester is stopped to empty itself out, it is in an unproductive period of down time. Further time loss occurs because of the method of exchanging an empty transporting trailer for a full trailer 12. For an empty trailer must stand by until it can be pulled into position along side the harvesting machine once the full trailer is pulled away to travel to an unloading destination. Full trailer capacity is not available because travel time for the full trailer from the field naturally expels air entrained during the harvesting process thereby causing the load to settle. In short, the existing process loses down time for the harvester, and use of the full capacity of the trailer transporting the crop load.
Handling harvested grain requires considerable care. The grain is valuable, so waste is to be prevented. On the other hand, it is also important for economic reasons to transport the grain from the field to a desired destination as quickly as practicable. So grain is normally transported from the farm to elevators or mills in large trucks, the bodies of which are up to 45 feet long and have open tops to facilitate loading. Normally, these trucks traverse the grain fields alongside harvesting machines, such as combines, with the discharge chutes of the harvesting machines directed into the open tops of the truck bodies. Maneuverability of such long structures is particularly difficult at the end of the rows when the equipment must turn completely around for the next cutting pass of the harvesting equipment. Moreover, while open tops are essential for loading, they are quite detrimental on the highway, since wind passing over the open top of a truck body will blow a substantial amount of the grain out of the truck body. Furthermore, rain can enter the truck body and destroy much of the grain. To avoid these problems, most operators of grain trucks place large tarpaulins over the open tops of their truck bodies.
In recent years, it has become common to mount large forage boxes on the back chasses of trucks. The trucks are driven into the fields to directly receive forage cut by choppers and similar harvesting machinery. Alternately, the forage boxes can be mounted on large trailers, which are pulled by tractors. Forage boxes often include apron chains that propel the forage material horizontally along a bed to an unloading gate. Like known grain handling equipment, the forage related equipment works very well. Also like the grain handling equipment, it is very expensive, especially if it is idle for much of the year.
In an ideal situation, forage boxes could also be used to handle harvested grain. That situation would eliminate the prior need for expensive separate equipment for hauling forage and grain. However, the prior art believes that double use of prior forage boxes is not feasible because of the structural configuration of the existing forage boxes, a large amount of grain loaded in a forage boxes would uncontrollably spill onto the ground immediately upon opening the unloading gate. The monetary loss of the spilled grain, or of the time required to pick it up, would be intolerable. Further, even if the problems associated with the initial surge of spilling grain were solved, it would be very difficult to control the unloading of the rest of the grain from the forage box.
None of these foregoing known assemblies show the invented actuating mechanism with a double pivot arrangement for moving a cover member between an open and closed position over the open top of a receptacle, and the invented structural control mechanisms that limit bulk material load loss, give load and environmental protection, and control load density to solve multiple problems in collecting, storing, handling, and transporting bulk materials. For these reasons, the invented top-loading container assembly and its various structural configurations that increase the efficiency of collecting, handling, and transporting bulk materials as compared to known assemblies and methods particularly in the crop harvesting process that use existing harvesting techniques and equipment.